China: Commentary: Right-wing ideology, long-term liability

With his party forecast to land a victory in Japan's lower house election on Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, if elected again, should decide how to deal with his country's alarming rightward drift, as it has increasingly become Tokyo's liability in the long run.
Most polls released so far have suggested that the Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition would secure a parliament majority in the 473-seat Diet, marking a convenient victory for Abe, who forced the dissolvement of parliament for a snap election last month.
However, while revelling in the imminent electoral bliss, Abe should remember that what the vote reflects is the constituency's longing for political stability, rather than their affirmation of Tokyo's increasingly nationalistic diplomatic and security agendas.
In fact, the public has been rattled by the country's chilly interactions with nearly all of its East Asian neighbors, as can be seen by this year's frustratingly low turnout.
Solely in 2014, the island country has repeatedly enraged its neighboring countries by, among others, flagrant visits of cabinet members and lawmakers to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, and their blatant denials of war-time recruitment of over 200,000 foreign sex slaves.
Besides those provocations, Japan has also get on the region's nerves by pushing for the removal of the long-standing ban on collective self-defense in an attempt to enable the country to battle overseas and thus virtually gut the post-war pacifist constitution.
These offensive moves have frozen the political ties between Japan and its neighbors, with severe implications on the country's struggling while highly export-dependent economy.
Moreover, Japan's frequent frictions and scarce high-level exchanges with its irritated neighbors have increasingly threatened regional stability and drawn backlashes even from the United States, its major ally.
With all these consequences in sight, no wonder that Abe sought a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the APEC forum last month, after the two sides reached a four-point agreement to ease tensions.
However, achieving a rapprochement with its neighbors demands more initiative from Tokyo to extend honesty with its war-time atrocities, loyalty to its pacifist Constitution, and prudence in the simmering territorial disputes.
As the volatile region is to embrace the dawn of 2015 soon, it is highly advisable and imperative that Tokyo face up to its responsibility, shake off the rightist ideology and translate its diplomatic commitment into real actions. If Abe retains the power, the onus will be on him to do that.